How Our Nonprofit Came to Be
One day in April of this past year, Ryan went to find a local swimming hole with his father. The plan was just to check the place out, as he’d heard a little about it from various people, and hike around the area for the day since it was much too chilly to be swimming. Upon finding the swimming hole, Ryan and his father quickly realized that the place was trashed. The sad part about it was that since it wasn’t swimming season yet, much of the trash is presumed to have been there since last summer, almost a full year before!
Ryan and his father couldn’t believe the state of this place. This swimming hole featured a steep hike down to the little pools, a waterfall, and a small trail that followed the creek for a while. They were baffled that people would leave trash in such a beautiful area. Having only a few small, plastic grocery bags in their car, they set out to do what they could picking up bottles, cans, glass, muddy clothes, etc.
In the midst of their clean up they can upon a sweet family who had a young son, who, despite only being about 9 years old, consistently came up to Ryan and his father with small pieces of trash that he’d find under his feet and was excitedly finding more to help fill up the make-shift trash bags. The parents told Ryan and his father that they were from out of state and that the local areas near them have seen much a similar fate as this place. They helped cleanup what they could, but between the steep, slippery environment and the need to keep a look after their little one, they couldn’t do much that day.
It was this day that left Ryan pondering. At first, he was upset that people treat beautiful places in this way and felt lonesome in the thoughts that he was one of the only ones willing to stand up and clean up such places. But this day kept weighing on his mind. He couldn’t seem to get over a certain realization that day.
In due time he realized that there are still a lot of people out there who care. For example, the family with their son obviously cared about the cause, but due to their lack of time and physical capabilities, they just weren’t able to help in the same ways. It was this day and specifically this realization that prompted the idea for GOOD STEWARD PCS nonprofit. This realization that a lot of people do care, and a plethora of people are willing to help! But we live in a busy world where even if people may have the time, some may not be physically capable enough to hike down steep hills, cross treacherous streams, rappel into ravines, and balance across rocks in order to access these wild areas where piles of trash may be!
This realization led to a complete mental shift in Ryan, from one of despair to one of hope. The hope that there are people out there who still care. There are people out there who still donate their time and their energies. And most importantly, the hope that people would care enough to support the creation and application of this nonprofit, which would help put people like himself out there 24/7 in order to keep areas such as that swimming hole clean year round!